This Week in Poker -- August 29 - September 4

Check out CardPlayer.com every Friday for a weekly wrap-up of the news from the live poker tournament trail.

Card Player Player of the Year Update

1: Eric Baldwin — 4,588
2: Vitaly Lunkin — 4,337
3: Angel Guillen — 3,492
4: Cornel Cimpan — 3,450
5: Mike Leah — 3,137
6: Brock Parker — 3,132
7: Alexandre Gomes — 3,120
8: Jeffrey Lisandro — 3,018
9: Poorya Nazari — 3,000
10: Jude Ainsworth — 2,840

This Week in Poker

PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event Begins

Day 1A at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona main event began at 12:30 p.m. CEST (3:30 a.m. PDT) in Spain today. The no-limit hold’em tournament features an €8,000 buy-in, and there will be two day-1 flights. The final table will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 9, and it begins at 2 p.m. local time (6 a.m. PDT).

This is the second stop for season six on the EPT. The first stop in Kiev attracted 296 players, and the champion was Maxim Lykov. The 2009 EPT Barcelona event will look to top the field of 619 players who played last season. Sebasatian Ruthenberg looks to defend his title and he is in action on day 1A. He won in Barcelona last year and took home €1,361,000 in prize money.

Players began with 30,000 in tournament chips, and registration is capped at 700 entrants (207 players are in action today). Blinds began at 50-100, and levels are 60 minutes long on day 1. Levels will increase to 75 minutes in length thereafter.

Here is a look at the schedule for EPT Barcelona:

Friday, Sept. 4: Day 1A
Saturday, Sept. 5: Day 1B
Sunday, Sept. 6: Day 2
Monday, Sept. 7: Day 3
Tuesday, Sept. 8: Day 4
Wednesday, Sept. 9: Final table

Dermot Blain Wins PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau

The final day of play in the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour $5,000 no-limit hold’em main event welcomed back nine players to the final table. A first-place prize worth $541,089 was up for grabs from the total prize pool of $2,081,000 that was created by a field of 429 players. Dermot Blain eventually claimed that prize and his first major tournament title when he was the last man standing at the final table.

Stefan Hjorthall was the first to fall in ninth place, his pocket nines fell to the aces up held by Pontus Kers. Blain scored his first elimination at the final table when his pocket kings held up to bust Brandon Dems in eighth place. Blain eliminated another opponent when he paired his ace in the hole to defeat the pocket queens of Dbinder Singh, who fell in seventh place. The A-9 of Jicheng Su was dominated by the A-K of Daoxing Chen, and Su was knocked out in sixth place to keep the eliminations coming.

The elimination of Kers in fifth place was especially painful. He got all of his money into the middle with K 6 in the hole against the 9 7 of his opponent Darkhan Botabayev. The board delivered a 9, but neither a king nor a flush came for Kers, who exited in fifth place.

Botabayev fell in fourth place when his 10 4 went into battle disadvantaged against the A Q of Chen. That small victory was a short one for Chen, who was the next player to hit the rail in third place. With an ace showing on the flop, Chen called all in for his tournament life with A-Q, only to discover that Blain held A-K and had him dominated.

After eliminating three players at the final table prior to heads-up play, Blain had built a healthy chip stack worth 7,390,000. Mike Kim held just 920,000, and he never really had a chance to overcome the huge deficit he faced. It took only four hands for things to come to a conclusion. On the final hand, Blain moved all in preflop, and Kim made the all-in call. Blain turned over K 10, and Kim revealed 10 9. The board ran out A 10 3 J 8, and Kim was eliminated in second place. Blain was crowned the APPT Macau champion, and he was awarded the top prize of $541,089.

Here is a look at the final results:

1: Dermot Blain — $541,089
2: Mike Kim — $484,999
3: Daoxing Chen — $239,327
4: Darkhan Botabayev — $166,497
5: Pontus Kers — $114,464
6: Jicheng Su — $74,923
7: Dbinder Singh — $52,033
8: Brandon Demes — $41,621
9: Stefan Hjorthall — $31,222

Looking Ahead

Card Player Live Coverage Event: PokerStars EPT Barcelona

Saturday, Sept. 5: Day 1B
Sunday, Sept. 6: Day 2
Monday, Sept. 7: Day 3
Tuesday, Sept. 8: Day 4
Wednesday, Sept. 9: Final Table

Partouche Poker Tour Grand Final

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WPT Merit Cyprus Classic

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Gulf Coast Poker Championship

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Borgata Poker Open

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Commerce Hold’em Series

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